Vios Challenge Round 3 Day 2 Race Report – Medini City January 2018

After a massively dramatic start at yesterday’s Race 1, today’s Race 2 saw a more harmonious flag off with Wong Chin Eeg in Pole, Brendan Paul in 2nd and Kenneth Koh 3rd on the grid.

Sporting Class Race 2

When the flag dropped, rookie Wong Chin Eeg made yet another great start as he leads the pack albeit with pro go karter Brendan Paul following close behind. It was obvious Wong Chin Eeg gave all he could to pull away but his efforts were futile as he was subsequently overtaken by Brendan Paul when he charged into the inside of Wong in Turn 1 at the 2nd lap of the race.

Brendan Paul makes a dash for it to try to extend the gap further but Wong Chin Eeg expertly maintains the gap, taking advantage of the draft from behind Brendan, maintaining a gap of just 0.7 seconds. Nevertheless, both Brendan and Wong were seemingly running their own race with plenty of gap from the pack behind them.

Brendon Lim who started in 2nd place however, had somehow allowed Kenneth Koh to pass him early in the race as they continue their 2 car battle, which saw an elastic gap between them as the laps went by. Andy Teoh, while in 5th place had Frederick Soo and Jackson Foo hot on his tail since the beginning of lap 4 through to lap 6. Goh Eng Peng, who had suffered a head on collision with the barriers in Race 2 yesterday seem to have experienced a lack of pace as he stayed second last place throughout the race

Clement Yeo in the striking Chrome Blue / White themed car makes a move on Shanmuganathan at lap 17 and enjoyed a clean pass at Turn 1 but had to resort to surrendering the position back to Shanmuganathan and subsequently allowed Ken Foo to pass as well as he sustained serious understeer at Turn 5.

But what was unexpected was a major collision by Clement and Shanmuganathan where they collided badly at Turn 1 when Shan had opened the door wide allowing Clement to capitalise the gap on the inside and even passing Ken Foo, but having entered the gap at immense speed, Clement overbraked himself and practically t-boned shan, sending both of them head on, hard into the grey TechPro barriers. Clement was then put under investigation by the race stewards.

Needless to say, the safety was deployed and the circuit rendered permanent yellow flag. Meanwhile, the great pace Brendan Paul had made is now useless as his competitors had the opportunity to catch up

As the Safety Car pulled in, the pack retained their positions, this time Brendan Paul really pulled away from Wong Chin Eeg, even clocking his fastest lap of the entire race as a result. In the 2nd last lap, Patrick Tam who had started last on the grid made a huge move to pass Goh Eng Peng on the inside of Turn 5 had outbraked himself and hit the rear left corner of Goh Eng Peng’s car, causing him to spin out of control.

Due to time constraints, The 22 lap race was converted into a timed race instead. This allowed Brendan Paul, who’ve successfully lead a huge part of the race to win Race 2 with Wong Chin Eeg to take second place and Kenneth Koh Third, concluding the Sporting Class segment

Promotional Class Race 2

Rain in promo class
Shawn made a sensational start with a perfect launch gapping himself from the group by a substantial margin before Turn 1

Janna Nick in Car 18 who did superbly in Race 1, was aiming to do even better in Race 2 made a brave charge through the mid pack but only to outbrake herself and locking the brakes into Turn 1 but had quickly recovered to rejoin the race with no major loss in position.

Meanwhile Shukri was not about to let Shawn get away with it manged to close the gap halfway into lap 1. He inches up into Shawn by lap 2 and was giving Shawn a run for his money.

But all efforts were wasted as the safety car was called out on to the circuit citing a crash by janna nick in lap 2. She had unfortunately hit a wall at Turn. There was a big show as the Safety Car returned into the pits when Shukri made a huge move on Shawn Lee and successfully passed in Turn 1. They then exchanged positions again and again but Shukri managed to regain his lead.

Fattah Amin however was gaining pace from the scuffle, crept ahead and had closed in on Shawn and Shukri. Shukri maintained his cool despite Shawn being hot on his tail, as he looks for an opportunity to pass. Shawn, now close behind, sees a gap at Turn 5 and takes it. Narrowly passing Shukri on the inside yet again. This time Shawn was determined to run away from it all to finally seal a gap between them

Now, Fattah is only 0.4 seconds behind Shukri and is trying his best to pass but it is Danny Khoo who is now giving Fattah a hard time for precious 3rd position. But it was at lap 10 that catastrophe struck when Danny Khoo who was right behind Fattah Amin failed to keep his cool, had oversped at Turn 5 and hit the wall at extreme speed, destroying his front end on the driver side as a result of the huge impact.

With debris strewn all over the crash site, not forgetting Danny Khoo’s own grounded cup car, the Safety Car was deployed.The Safety Car enters the pits with 8 laps to go and has Shawn, Shukri and Fattah leading the race. Again, this race was classified as a time race due to the conditions posed.

Now, with only 4 odd minutes to go, this time, pressure intensifies as the celebrity drivers inches ever closer to the walls, even almost replicating the mishap of what Danny Khoo had experienced earlier on. Alas, with no time left on the clock, the chequered flag drops to secure Shawn Lee with a First place win, Shukri Yahya in well deserved Second place and Fattah Amin proudly takes third place.

Super Sporting Race 2

Keifli who started his pole had Prince of drift Djan right beside him at the start of the race. Mark Darwin meanwhile, had to retire from the race due to damages sustained in Race 1 yesterday from the collision with Akina Teo, that had even send Teo’s car briefly airborne.

It was a incredibly close race made out of 4 top runners Keifli, Tengku Djan, Syafiq Ali and William Ho with only 0.2 seconds separating them. By lap 3 the pack grew even closer as Keifli played the defensive strategy to keep Djan at bay, allowing William Ho, who is in 4th and Kenny Lee, 5th to close in, extending the front wolf pack to 5 cars. But by lap 5, situation’s changed into a 3 car battle between Keifli, Tengku Djan and Syafiq Ali.

Meanwhile teammates William and Kenny were running their own 2-car race as they try to play catch up. Keifli raises the bar by lap 7 and extends his gap from Djan by 0.8 seconds and Syafiq by a further 1.6 seconds.

However nothing could stop the charging prince Tengku Djan drafting from behind Keifli to close a gap of 0.4seconds by lap 9. By this time, Keifli and Djan had separated from the pack to run their own battle for first place

At lap 10 Mitchell made a move by outbraking Kenny Lee at t1 but had failed to launch, causing the two to exchange paintwork, and subsequently caused Mitchell to lose his front right tyre, which means losing his steering and nearly escaping a date with the wall

Keifli was definitely on fire in Race 2, where the veteran touring car driver skillfully retained his pole position despite the immense pressure from Djan. Although it is worth noting that Djan was carrying weighty success ballast throughout the race.

Weirdly enough, it seemed Djan was losing pace with 5 laps to go, allowing Syafiq Ali to gain on the prince of drift with a gap of only 0.6 seconds. Needless to say, this meant that Keifli had the best condition with no distraction to pull even further and gave a gap of over 3.5 seconds from Djan and the entire pack

Syafiq who has been capitalising on his pace even brushed the wall as he ran wide at Turn 8 while closing in on Tengku Djan. But it was at Turn 1 of the last lap that the hearts of spectators at Medini skipped a beat when Tengku Djan ran extremely wide to pull an unthinkable move for a very late entry, deliberately allowing Syafiq Ali to take him on the inside. Only to call his bluff for an early exit to confiscate Syafiq Ali’s shortlived 2nd position.

It was hands down the greatest heist in the history of the Vios Challenge as it became obvious that Tengku Djan had anticipated the imminent arrival of Syafiq judging from their pace difference. As if it weren’t spectacular enough, Syafiq Ali who had to settle for third place after the royal move by Tengku Djan then fumbled at Turn 3 and unfortunately made contact with the wall on his front right wheel, shredding the tyre to bits. It must have been excruciating for Syafiq Ali as he had to limp his way to the finish line.

The final disappointment came when William Ho, who was running 4th place throughout the entire race caught up with the now crippled Syafiq Ali for an easy pass to snatch his 3rd place.

It was only at the driver’s interview that Tengku Djan exposed he’d been facing severe brake fade for the last 7 laps, shedding light onto the drop in pace that had allowed Syafiq Ali to close in, which left the crowd wondering as to what had happened.

Nevertheless, the final race of Super Sporting Class was indeed a crowd pleaser, ending the dramatic Vios Challenge Round 3 with a sweet closure for all, and especially Keifli Othman as Champion, Tengku Djan in Second place and William Ho Third in the sensational Race 2.